I truly love this dip. I mean, who doesn’t love a flavorful delicious dip for their crudite? This is actually one of my favorite dishes to bring to a party because everyone will love it, whether raw, raw vegan or omnivore. It’s delicious, healing, packed with flavor and it goes well with any cut up vegetables like peppers, carrots, cucumbers or zucchini.
I like to use fresh organic baby spinach for this recipe. You can use frozen, but it will make the dip a bit more watery. I’ve been using Dr. Fuhrman’s brand of Nutritional yeast, because it’s the only brand I’ve found so far that does not include supplemental folic acid. Supplemental folic acid has been linked in studies to a significant increase in breast cancer risk, so I always advise my clients to avoid it. I had pretty much become accustomed to avoiding nutritional yeast in most recipes, despite my love of it’s “cheesiness”. That was until I found out about Dr. Fuhrman’s brand. Now, I have happily brought nutritional yeast back into my regular repertoire of pantry staples. (well, technically I store it in the fridge!)
The only advance prep you need for this recipe is to soak your almonds for 8 hours. So, just stick a cup of almonds in a bowl or mason jar at night before you go to bed, cover with water, and let sit overnight. Your almonds will be ready in the morning.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
• 3 cups spinach
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 cups Almonds (soaked 8 hours if possible)
• 2 TBSP hemp seed oil
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/3 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp. Himalayan Salt
• 1 tsp ground chia seeds (optional: increases thickness of dip)
4 Bell Peppers (large, or a bag of minis)
1. Chop spinach and red onion and place in mixing bowl.
2. Put remaining ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
3. Combine blender contents in bowl and mix.
4. Chill for 1-2 hours to increase thickness.
5. You can either cut up large bell peppers and serve this as a dip, or you can cut off the tops of mini bell peppers and fill with the dip inside for bite sized “tapas”. You can use a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with the corner cut off, then squeeze to fill.
